Pageant

Adrienne Watson Carver, Mrs. Maryland 2007, has just returned from Tucson, Ariz., where she placed among the top 10 in this year's Mrs. America pageant. She has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, theToday show, Cafe B-more, Grace and Glory at Midnight and Baltimore 2night. A former Ravens cheerleader, she is the owner of Studio "A" Modeling, Etiquette and Dance Academy in Randallstown and is the founder of the Studio "A" Foundation, which for the past three years has awarded nearly $30,000 in scholarships to Baltimore-area high school juniors and seniors.

The buzz of hair clippers filled the air as Beth Majchrzak moved from one client to the next. "We're what you'd call an animal hairdresser," she said with a laugh, trimming the woolly coat of a Hampshire sheep named Nickelback. Yesterday, on the eve of the first day of competition at the Maryland State Fair, the Timonium fairgrounds was busier than a barbershop in prom season. Farmers, animal owners and their barn help began washing, trimming, braiding and coiffuring the hair of horses, sheep, cows, swine and other beasts that will be judged in various competitions over the 11 days of the annual state fair.

Diana Beuchert rode in on a white Andalusian, its silky coat radiating a sparkle that matched her flowing, 18th-century-style wedding dress. Suddenly, the tractor pull, the pig races and the aroma of funnel cake were no longer the big draws at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair last Saturday. Beuchert, a horse trainer and owner of a Mount Airy-based equestrian theater that features the Spanish-born horses, seemed to have the limelight to herself. "Wowwwwww!" exclaimed a group of teenage girls looking at the 6-foot train on Beuchert's satin-and-lace dress that covered the horse's backside.

Rachel Holmes Cruzan's ascension to Queen of the Chesapeake in 1948 was anything but smooth sailing. Because her entry was flubbed in the Maryland Yacht Club's inaugural pageant, the 17-year-old had no place to stay and spent the night before the contest sleeping on the floor of a sailboat. After a night enduring mosquitoes and noisy partyers, she awoke with little enthusiasm for the contest. "I was ready to go home," said Cruzan, who lived in Bel Air at the time. But to her surprise, Cruzan was picked as queen over five other contestants.

Rachel Holmes Cruzan's ascension to Queen of the Chesapeake in 1948 was anything but smooth sailing. Because her entry was flubbed in the Maryland Yacht Club's pageant, the 17-year-old had no place to stay and spent the night before the contest sleeping on the floor of a sailboat. After a night enduring mosquitoes and noisy partyers, she awoke with little enthusiasm for the contest. "I was ready to go home," said Cruzan, who lived in Bel Air at the time. But to her surprise, Cruzan was picked as queen over five other contestants.

A largely subdued race for the two House of Delegates seats representing northern Harford ignited last week, as a female candidate accused her male opponent at a candidates night in Jarrettsville of being a "chauvinist." The accusation stemmed from a mailing sent out by Democrat Craig DeRan, which had a picture of a tiara and displayed vapid phrases sometimes uttered by contestants in a beauty pageant. "Donna Stifler talks about issues we can all agree on," it reads. "If you are competing in a beauty pageant, those are great answers.

This Saturday, Pigtown's proud, snouty namesakes will take to the street. More than a dozen oinkers will plod down Washington Boulevard twice that day, as part of the annual Pigtown Festival. It's a chance for the neighborhood to revel in its past - when pigs were driven down the roads to the slaughterhouses - and exhibit its growing development. This year, the festival outgrew its former venue on McHenry Street, and organizers moved it to the 700-900 blocks of Washington Blvd. "We felt that it would be appropriate that we move the festival to kind of the natural point of convergence for Pigtown, which is Washington Boulevard, which is the neighborhood's main street," said Jack Danna, the director of Pigtown Main Street, the organization that presents the festival.

Quirky, sweet-and-sour American comedies often become contemporary classics when they bring wit and humanity to settings too often merely caricatured, like teen beauty pageants in Smile (1974) and a fundamentalist-Christian high school in Saved! (2004). Little Miss Sunshine, the hit indie comedy of the summer, has links to both films. Like them, it's a tangy slice of dark Americana. But its final act unfolds in a setting even riskier for comedy or drama, especially these days: the Little Miss Sunshine contest, a prepubescent beauty pageant.

The titillating photo of a heavily made-up JonBenet Ramsey in a saucy cowgirl costume that circulated after her murder 10 years ago propelled the case into a public obsession. A handful of unsolved murders involving children make national headlines each year, but the name JonBenet and her photograph became shorthand for a society's concerns about the safety of children and the nature of childhood. The lack of signs of forced entry and the distant demeanor of the girl's parents compounded public discomfort with images of a victim described as a "6-year-old beauty queen."

Anne Arundel: Sandy Point Advisory lifted for park beach The Anne Arundel County Health Department lifted yesterday its weeklong advisory for the East Beach at Sandy Point State Park. The advisory was issued after the discovery of high levels of bacteria in the water. Water samples collected Wednesday and Thursday showed bacteria at levels acceptable for recreational water use, according to Health Department officials. During swimming season, the department samples the East and South beaches daily and will continue to monitor the bacteria levels, said the department's Environmental Health Division director, Kerry Topovski.